Prior to conception and design of the instant invention, efforts have been made to provide draft gear assemblies for cushioning buff and draft dynamic impact forces encountered during make-up and operation of a railway vehicle that employ elastomeric springs. While prior art inventions, including the cross-referenced related application, describe and teach various improvements to the elastomeric draft gears utilizing such compressible elastomeric spring stacks, it has been found that additional improvements are required in the area of controlling radial expansion of the elastomeric members disposed in series with each other within the draft gear housing and assembling draft gear assemblies, particularly in the area of assembling compressible elastomeric spring stacks in combination with a hollow draft gear housing.